Family Portraits
by IAmSherlocked96
Summary: AU: Matt hasnt left waterloo road. during the summer holidays he was in an accident that badly hurt him and killed his mother. now he's been left as the guardian to his two troublesome teenage brothers. How will he cope with the challenges that lay ahead?
1. Chapter 1

**Family Portraits:**

10 minutes before the morning bell rang Max did his usual routine of strutting into the waterloo road staff room and seizing control of the morning announcements off Rachel.

"Thank you Rachel, that's enough. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am glad to announce that the head of Music and Drama Matt Wilding will be rejoining us tomorrow. He has been off for a while now due to injuries he gained from a car crash which sadly killed his mother. So let's give him warm welcome back into our school community."

Tom leaned across to Steph "You heard from him recently?"

Steph nodded "yeah, he's been out of hospital for a while now. Been in London with his family. He mentioned something about there being trouble with who was going to look after his brothers."

"I didn't know he had brothers"

"Me neither until now. Apparently he's got 2. They're 16 year old twins. Both as loud and as dramatic as he is."

Tom laughed "And I thought one Wilding was bad enough"

Max's head suddenly snapped back up. "Oh, and Matt's brothers Tom and Alex will also be joining our year 11's as Matt is now their guardian."

Grantly looked up from his copy of _The Racing Post_. "Jesus Christ, please don't tell me that they are anything like young Wilding"

"I don't know Grantly; I've never met Matt or his brothers. But please be sure to welcome them with open arms. All three brothers have been through a lot recently." The executive head walked out, closely followed by Rachel. A short silence filled the staff room for about half a minute. Joe was the first to speak.

"So what happened to Matt?"

Kim and Tom exchanged glances before look straight at Steph. Even Grantly peeled his eyes away from his newspaper for a few seconds.

"He was in a car crash," Steph shook her head "A really terrible car crash. It killed his Mum almost straight away, but somehow Matt managed to survive. He was in a coma for about a month, which was probably a good thing really considering how much pain he would have been in if he was awake. He's now got brain damage, which has affected his short term memory, but luckily that will go away after a while." She smiled as if trying to reassure herself that her best friend would be fine when he finally came back "he'll be alright. Its Matt, he can muddle his way through anything." Tom placed his hand on Steph's shoulder and gave her a smile.

"Don't you worry. It's not like he's changed as a person. He'll still be the same camp, daft, all-singing, all-dancing Matt that we've always known."

Matt shoved his key forcefully in the lock and pushed his front door open. "Right then, here we are." He held the door open as his two younger brothers trudged through. They threw their belongings down on the brown leather sofa. Matt scratched his head. "Err, you remember where everything is don't you?" The twins nodded. Tom stood up to his full height of 5'11 and scanned the room. He shook his long blonde hair from out of his face and laughed.

"It's gonna take a while to get used to living in such a small space. Especially with you again." He frowned "you don't walk around naked do you?"

Matt's laugh boomed across the small room "God no." He raised an eyebrow "Do you?"

"Noooooooooooooooooooo way!" Matt looked at Alex, the older and quieter of the twins. He shook his curly, blondish – brown mane.

"Mate, I can't even look at myself naked in the mirror. Can you ever imagine me walking around naked?"

The oldest brother grinned "good point, brainiac. Now, chuck your stuff in your room and we'll talk about school. You're starting tomorrow."

The twins groaned before picking up their bags and stumbling into their new bedroom.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

The engine of the car grumbled as matt turned the key. "You two nervous?"

"No. We never get nervous. Although we could have done with uniforms so we don't stick out like sharks in a fish tank."

The car started to pull out of the parking lot. "Yeah, sorry about that, the shop accidently sold your ones to another customer. They should be here tonight though."

"Hmm, doesn't really bother me that much to be honest. I just don't see why Sir Dorkalot over here can't dress like a normal person."

Alex peered down at his attire of black skinny jeans, a neatly ironed shirt and a thin black tie. He shrugged "I don't see anything wrong with it."

"You look like a stuck up toff. I mean it would look fine if your jeans were baggier and you shirt was untucked and a bit crumpled and what may I ask is up with you hair." Tom reached his hand up and quickly ruffled Alex's neatly combed mass of hair. Matt chuckled under his breath. He'd be lying if he said that he hadn't missed his brothers silly bickering nearly every day for the past nine years. He did sometimes leaving home so soon, but only because of them. At the age of sixteen he was living on a council estate, in a little house with a mother who he hardly saw as she worked so late, a father who never did anything but drink and walk to and from the local pub. He was basically left to raise Tom and Alex by himself. And that's why he left. To escape that horrible past and to start a new life away from all the drugs and booze and crime. A smile played across his face. It was ironic how he left home to escape all that and he ended up teaching at waterloo road. He looked back at his baby brothers. He hoped they wouldn't talk about his past to the other students. It was a past he wasn't proud of at all. Matt's gaze quickly flicked to a scar running up his arm. He shuddered as the memory of his dad running a knife down his arm came flooding back. That was the day he found out Matt was gay. One of the worst days of his life. His dad beat him regularly after that to try and "toughen him out" or "turn him back into a man and not a stupid faggot." A tear rolled down his cheek. This was not to go unnoticed by Alex.

"Are you okay Matt?"

Matt swerved into the school driveway and drove into the nearest parking space. He looked in the rear view mirror. "I'm fine Alex. Now get your lazy butt out of the car!"

****-W/R-****

Steph looked up at the staff room clock. 8:15. Matt always arrived at this time everyday. Sure enough, Matt's sleek silver Mercedes came rolling into view.

"He's back!" Steph run at full speed out the door. Tom laughed at the excitement of his colleague; she'd been waiting for the arrival of her close friend all morning.

****-W/R-****

Rachel grinned and walked promptly towards the three Wilding brothers. "Hi," she extended her hand towards the two newcomers. "Welcome to Waterloo Road. It's lovely to finally meet you." Alex shook her hand whilst Tom gave her a little wave. She gave Matt a quick hug "it's great to finally have you back. Steph's been missing you like crazy and the choir has had to put up with singing along to the contents of her iPod for the past few weeks." Matt laughed.

"Well I hope she hasn't corrupted them too much. I've seen the contents of her iPod," he leaned in to whisper "it's not pretty."

The head smiled back "Follow me to the office and we'll get you your timetables." As they made their way to the office Tom and Alex were given a quick tour of the school.

Rachel took the opportunity to get to know the boy's whilst the timetables were printing. "So what subjects are you taking?"

"I'm taking drama, music, English and PE." Alex looked suddenly looked shy.

"Music, drama, maths, triple science, English art and history." Rachel couldn't hide her shock.

"Wow, that's an awful lot of work. Are you sure you can cope?" Alex nodded

"I took my GCSE's a year early so I had time to learn all I needed to know for this year. Until the actual exams it will mostly just be revision for me." The expression of shock remained on Rachel's face. Matt patted Alex on the back.

"You can tell that the brains skipped a brother can't you." Alex bowed his head in embarrassment.

"Don't be ashamed Alex. Being clever isn't a crime you know."

"I know, it's just people tend to think I'm weird because I like school and I like to learn. But I'm not." Rachel gently rubbed his shoulder.

"Don't worry. You'll be fine here. I'm sure loads of people will be delighted to be your friend."

There was a knock at the door. "Come in." Two girls walked in. Alex's breath hitched at the sight of one of them. She was middlish height, with short ginger hair and a pointy face. She was gorgeous.

"Tom, Alex, this is Alisha and Danielle. They'll be helping you around today." Alex's eyes met with Danielle's.

"Hi,"

"Hi,"


	3. Chapter 3

**Family Portraits:**

**Chapter 3:**

Alex's breath caught as he locked eyes with the girl in front of him. With big brown eyes and short cropped auburn hair, she had to be one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. Nervously he extended his hand towards her.

"Hi, I'm Alex." He felt himself blush as her dainty white hand took his.

"Danielle Harker, nice to meet you." She struggled to hide her laugh as she saw the new boy blush a deep red when she touched him. It may have been slightly goofy but hey, he was cute. Danielle's eyes quickly scanned over Alex. A score out of ten would be necessary for a later conversation. She and Aleesha always marked every new guy they met out of ten. If between them they scored over 15 then whoever gave the highest score would get dibs on trying to pull first. Danielle smiled softly to herself. Based on looks alone this guy was definitely at least a nine. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Miss Masons voice.

"...and this is Tom Wilding." Tom gave a small wave whilst both startled back.

"Wilding?" Aleesha's voice was loud and squeaky with shock. Her eyes darted between Matt and the two newcomers. "You mean you're their dad? But sir, you're gay!"

"Err, no Aleesha. Mr Wilding is Tom and Alex's older brother." Matt doubled over with laughter.

"You honestly thought that I was their dad? Jesus Christ Aleesha how old do you think I am?" Aleesha shrugged.

"I dunno...35?" Matt frowned

"Try 25. And you were right earlier, I am gay. So how on earth do you think I would be able to have kids?"

"One night stand."

"That's enough Aleesha. Mr Wilding's private life has absolutely nothing to do with you." Matt nodded, his curly blonde hair bouncing up and down on his head.

"Yeah! But just for the record I have never slept with a woman. In fact I've never even kissed a woman." He giggled childishly. "Girls are icky."

Rachel's large brown eyes rolled into the back of her head. "Honestly Matt, are you sure that car crash didn't destroy what few brain cells you already had left. You seem to have miraculously become even more childish and immature than ever. If that was even possible."

"The doctors said that other than the memory doo-dah, my brain was fine. I'm just naturally thick. Just as I'm naturally this good looking.

"Hmm, well that's slightly debateable." She turned her attention back to the four sniggering teenagers in front of her. "Registration is about to start, so if you could take Tom and Alex to your form room and let them shadow you for today that would be fantastic." As the four left Matt began to follow. "Not you Matt, I need to talk to you privately for a moment. Mrs Walcott is covering your form for you." Tom snickered.

"Being called into the head teachers office for a little chat are we? Some things never change." Matt raised his fist in a joking manner.

"Get you. And behave; I don't want to hear anything but good things in the staff room later." The young man sat down in the chair in front of the head's desk.

"I just wanted to ask how you were." Matt shrugged. "I know it must be hard for you, losing your mum like that," he winced at the mention of his mother, "But I want you to know that my door is always open. Anytime you need to talk I'm here for you; as a friend, not as a boss." Matt nodded and started to stand.

"Well thanks Rachel. I'll keep that in mind."

"Hold on, I'm not quite finished yet." Matt sat back down with a thump. "I've spoken to Kim and we've both agreed that maybe you could do with some counselling from her. Only Steph mentioned the other day that you told her you were having trouble sleeping due to nightmares and such." Matt's face suddenly became dark with anger; his fists clenched so tightly the knuckles turned white.

"Yeah well maybe Steph needs counselling on how to keep her mouth shut." He stood to his full height of 6 foot, knocking the chair over as he did. "I'm fine. I don't need help. I don't need counselling. I don't need you. In fact I don't need anyone. I've got my brothers to think about. They're just kids and I'm the only person they have left. I need to be strong for them. I can't let them see me break. Or else they'll break." He stormed out. Rachel's head fell into her hands.

**X-WR-X**

Matt took a deep breath before pushing open the staff room door. The familiar musty scent of coffee and biscuits hit him instantly, filling his nose with delight. Slowly he made his first steps over the threshold. Something he had been dreading for weeks. What would people say? What would all the new members of staff think of him? Would he actually be able to just step back into things after everything that had happened? After all, he had murdered his own mum. Matt shook his head, trying to get the horrific sound of his mum screaming as the truck rolled wildly towards them out of his brain. The crash may have not been his fault, rather the fault of some idiot drink driver, but he still blamed himself for her death. He was the one that had been driving the car. He should have looked again. Maybe he might have seen the lorry hurling through the red light. He should have been more careful. If he had done that she might still be alive. Every ounce of Matt hoped and prayed that one day he would just wake up and find that this had all been just some horrific nightmare. But it wasn't a nightmare. It was real life. It was his life. Matt had never felt pain like this before. Not even 5 years ago when his dad died of lung cancer. He was ill for a long time. Matt had time to prepare himself for the worst and even though he hated the man for everything he did. It still hurt. But this...this was so sudden, so unreal he couldn't get his head round it. Taking another deep breath Matt stepped around the corner into the view of everyone. Immediately he was pounce on by Steph.

"Oh my god Matt. I've missed you so, so much. I've been worried sick about you." A smile crept across Matt's face. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.

"hey there Nana." He held her closer, a tear rolled down his cheek. "I've really missed you too."


End file.
